EU Pledges Focus on Cheaper Energy With Secure Supply

June 27 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union must make
security of energy supply, reduction of costs and the fight
against climate change a priority for the next five years, the
28-nation bloc’s leaders agreed.

The EU heads of state and government backed efforts to
speed the creation of a common energy market, develop
infrastructure and diversify supply, according to a strategic
agenda signed at a summit in Brussels today. The vow to move
toward “an energy union with forward-looking climate policy”
comes after a pricing dispute led to the cutoff of Russian
natural gas supplies to Ukraine, the transit country for around
15 percent of the EU demand for the fuel.

“We must avoid Europe relying to such a high extent on
fuel and gas imports,” leaders said in the document. “To
ensure our energy future is under full control, we want to build
an energy union aiming at affordable, secure and sustainable
energy.”

The pledge coincides with an EU debate on energy-security
strategy and climate and energy policies for the next decade.
The European Commission, the bloc’s regulatory arm, proposed in
January the bloc adopt a binding goal to cut greenhouse gases by
40 percent by 2030, accelerating the pace of emissions reduction
from 20 percent in 2020 compared with 1990 levels. It also
recommended an EU-wide target to boost the share of renewables
in energy consumption to 27 percent.

Energy Savings

A third pillar in the 2030 package should be a target to
increase energy savings, according to EU Energy Commissioner
Guenther Oettinger. The commission is considering proposing an
energy efficiency goal of 27 percent to 30 percent next month,
according to two people with knowledge of the matter who asked
not to be identified, citing policy.

EU leaders pledged to mobilize all efforts to meet the
October deadline for a deal on the climate and energy framework
that they set at their March gathering, according to a political
statement on the EU website. They also agreed to seek an
agreement on long-term energy security measures in October after
backing the immediate implementation of actions to avoid gas
supply disruptions this winter amid the Ukraine crisis.

The short-term steps that governments should take include
reinforcing emergency mechanisms, gas storage and reverse flow,
the EU said. Gas infrastructure investments, including with
third countries, should be pursued in full respect of the EU’s
internal market and competition rules, the leaders said.

Oettinger has repeatedly urged member states involved in
the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline, which will
carry Russian gas under the Black Sea to Europe, to ensure the
project is in line with EU legislation.

The five-year EU strategy, adopted alongside the political
statement on the 2030 package, also underscored the need to
complete a common energy market, find ways to increase the EU’s
bargaining power and make the bloc’s gas market more
transparent. The EU must also continue to lead the fight against
global warming by agreeing setting ambitious 2030 climate
targets, according to the document.